Spotify for Artists — available to ALL

In short, they’ve re-branded “Fan Insights” as “Spotify for Artists” and they’ve opened it up to all artists: verification no longer requires that you have a minimum of 250 followers on Spotify.

That also means Spotify gives you access to info about your listeners on the platform, though I would still recommend you rely primarily on your daily Spotify trending reports from CD Baby, as we provide greater flexibility with the analytics window, more thorough reporting of playlist activity, and better city/map data.

Here’s what Spotify says:

Artist verification on Spotify has always lived separately from our core products for artists. Until now. Today, artist verification and artist playlisting are both becoming part of Spotify for Artists.

As an artist, you no longer need to fill out a separate form to get verified on Spotify — just get access to your profile in Spotify for Artists and you’re all set. Artist playlisting is also being integrated into Spotify for Artists. You and your team can post playlists, update images, and make picks all from the same place — simplifying how you manage your artist profile.

What this means if you’re already verified:

Whether you use Spotify for Artists or not, you’ll keep your verification.

Spotify for Artists is available for all artists and their management teams. You no longer need 250 followers to get verified.

As of early May, you can add any playlist to your artist profile using Spotify for Artists — the same way you add an artist’s pick. You’ll use your personal Spotify account to create and edit artist playlists.

While we’re working as quickly as we can, you may not see the verified check mark on your page until early May.

We know verification and artist playlisting are important to you, so we’ll keep working on improvements and new features that make it even simpler.

Spotify for Artists gives you a look at actionable data on your listeners, including:

Demographics: find out important information about who’s listening to your music on Spotify, including age and gender, and what device they’re using to access your tunes. Is your ACTUAL audience different from what you imagined? Adjust promotions accordingly!

Location: Find out where your fans live so you can route smarter tours and concentrate radio promotion efforts on the right markets.

Similar artists: See what other artists your fans are listening to. Maybe this info can help you better target your online ads.

Live listeners: Discover how many people are listening to you on Spotify in real-time.

Song data: Break it down to the song level to see how your newest track is performing.

Playlist data: Find out what impact playlist placements are having on your streams, and give social shout-outs to any playlister who adds your music.

Playlist notifications: Get an email any time Spotify adds one of your songs to one of their curated playlists.

[As I mentioned above, I would recommend using Spotify for Artists data in conjunction with the daily Spotify trending reports provided by CD Baby, as our reports are more thorough in certain areas.]

In addition to getting access to these analytics, you can also customize your artist discography by editing the artist image whenever you like (so your branding on Spotify will always be up-to-date), pin songs or playlists to the top of your profile, and feature playlists from your discography page.

These changes probably arrive as both sweet and sour news for many indie artists who’ve worked hard to build their followings on Spotify in order to get verified. But here’s the silver-lining: now you have more followers on Spotify! And that is going to make a significant difference the next time you release an album or single on the platform.

What do you think of these changes? Happy? Overdue? Holler in the comments.

In this article

... is the Editor of CD Baby's DIY Musician Blog. I write Beatlesque indie-pop songs that've been praised by No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, & others. My poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, & more. I live in Maine and like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a little too much.

Join the Conversation

It’s what they were calling Fan Insights. It’s an interface between Spotify and artists. Click the link in the article to access.

Dexysden

is that really that dramatic? So you can basically edit you profile in another place? One thing they need to sort out is the related artists tab. We’ve had to ask for ours to be removed twice, we are an electronic, trip hop band yet we get put with Country & Western and terrible rnb

It’s pretty huge, in my book. Previous to these changes, artists needed to get to 250 followers in order to get verified, combine user and artist profiles, feature playlists, etc. Now it’s open to everyone.

Legpuppy

i don’t actually get what feature playlist is, you could have that before you got verified. We got verified last month, our plays if anything have gone down. We have tons of tunes in playlists too

This is great news. One thing i am wondering though is how will protection against false claims be managed? Because its become easier to get verified on Spotify, piratically anyone can go and claim your artist account before you. I’m sure they thought of something to prevent this though and honestly most artist won’t have this issue. Just a thought 😀

I for one am excited about this because I can really see and expect to receive from Spotify. Now all I have to do is get on more playlist ! Feel free to look me up on there and follow me and maybe add my music to your own playlist

This makes things so much easier, thanks for the heads up! Any chance anyone knows how to have a different image for the artist profile photo and the banner photo? As whenever I change one it changes the other to it as well? Thanks!https://open.spotify.com/artist/3j4OWvvKcnUg4MNxsQbfhz

Hi Chris, thanx again for the info, but it is absolutely not working. My artist/band name is not my real name and there is no step included for verification that I am even supposed to get access to the spotify artist account. And there is no possibility to get help or verification or do anything but get the “something went wrong” message. Very frustrating. Cheers Vera

Dave Maroul

Hi Vera, Did you go to this link? https://artists.spotify.com/c/access?step=login Then at the bottom left of the page is your Artist? name (might be your user name (before you complete the verification not sure)) click on that name (directly opens the “Settings” page) or the “…” symbol next to it & navigate to “Settings”. Now you should be on the Settings page. Set the “Role” “Name you want to use” & “the user account that is being linked to the artist account (I believe this is an accurate statement based upon when I completed this)”. Otherwise this same link (above ^^^) is where you get all your Artist Stats. If you click on “Profile” (under Tools in the left column) this is where you can edit you Artist Profile & soon add playlists etc. Hope this helps! All the best! Follow me on Spotify -> Arc Rev One https://open.spotify.com/artist/4nEJdJCwi5us94x65WADej Follow me on FB -> https://www.facebook.com/ArcRevOne/ Thanks!

Thanks Dave i’m going to follow you. follow my two Artist as well. Ghost Black and Sandy Star.
Your info was great and very helpful. Thanks so much. Peace

Max Christensen

Great to see changes being made to make the process easier for artists.
I´m still skeptical about if I should join or not at this point in time.
I´ve had somewhat of a musical identity crisis and am not quite sure what music I even want to make and under what name to release it. I still work as a composer and sound designer under my real name and do various recording projects in various genres. Releasing lots of different singles or an EP/Album which doesnt fit the rest of my catalogue seems like a bad move. Am I thinking too much about this or should I indeed try to separate different styles under different artist names?

Wow Chris, There is a significant difference in the amount of comments on this post versus the, How to get your first 250 followers on Spotify. Thanks for the info. It is a little bitter sweet but like you said at least I’ve got more followers now.

Spotify should have done it at its inception itself as Artists deserve to be Verified, irrespective of the Fans or Followers coz We, Artists, do work at our best to make Great Music.

VIVASWAN

Vivaswan Composer

Spotify should have done it at its inception itself as Artists deserve to be Verified, irrespective of the Fans or Followers coz We, Artists, do work at our best to make Great Music.

VIVASWAN

Dave Maroul

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS Go to this link? https://artists.spotify.com/c/access?step=login
Then at the bottom left of the page is your Artist? name (might be your
user name (before you complete the verification not sure)) click on
that name (directly opens the “Settings” page) or the “…” symbol next
to it & navigate to “Settings”. Now you should be on the Settings
page. Set the “Role” “Name you want to use” & “the user account that
is being linked to the artist account (I believe this is an accurate
statement based upon when I recently completed this)”. Otherwise this same link
(above ^^^) is where you get all your Artist Stats. If you click on
“Profile” (under Tools in the left column) this is where you can edit
you Artist Profile & soon add playlists etc. Hope this helps! All
the best! Follow me on Spotify -> Arc Rev Onehttps://open.spotify.com/artist/4nEJdJCwi5us94x65WADej Follow me on FB
-> https://www.facebook.com/ArcRevOne/ Thanks!

Dexysden

i think they need to do more to help promote unsigned artists, plus actually make sure the related artist tab is accurate

William Mullarky

Great- thanks for the info. Now that I’m verified I’ve tried to upload a new profile picture for my album- but it doesn’t seem to work. Anybody else having a similar issue or know what the problem is? Thank you in advance!

Hello this is great news if this actually works for all artist. If everyone who comments on this post actually follows each other that has concerns. You would be well on your way to gaining more followers. Your already communicating with each other and displaying your concerns. Follow Ghost Black – http://bit.ly/GhostBlackonSpotify

Finding the whole thing a bit confusing. I got a message that I’ve been verified and in the process seem to have a dual account now – one “user” and one “artist”? The two don’t really seem to interact at this point. Hoping this will all make sense once the changes are complete. I can see the blue check mark on my phone app, but not the computer player (they never seem to match up).

Yes. You should go to that artist.spotify link and merge your user profile with your artist discography page. Spotify will verify that you are the correct person to manage that page. However, you should still keep everything up-to-date via ROVI because that’s how Spotify pulls its bio info.

Well, it’s easy to get it into a pre-cleared catalog (because CD Baby manages one!) Just sign up within your CD Baby members account. If you’re looking for smaller boutique options with a limited amount of clients on the roster, I’d just recommend doing some Google searching, because there are all kinds of options out there that specialize in different genres, regions, etc.